Significance of Trace Element Quantities in Osteomyelitis and Ewing's Sarcoma

Abstract

To clarify the role of trace elements (TE) in the etiology and the pathogenesis of osteomyelitis (OM) and Ewing's sarcoma (ES) of bone, a nondestructive neutron activation analysis were performed. The Ag, Co, Cr, Fe, Hg, Rb, Sb, Se, and Zn contents were measured in three groups of samples: normal bone samples from 27 persons with intact bone, and also in samples, obtained from open biopsies or after operation of 10 patients with OM and 6 patients with ES. The difference in the results between TE contents in the three groups was evaluated by the parametric Student's t-test and non-parametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U-test. In the OM tissue the mean contents of Co, Cr, Fe, Se, and Zn are respectively 1.8, 1.7, 1.8, 1.7, and 1.5 times higher than those in normal bone tissues. In the ES tissue the mean contents of Co, Fe, and Se are respectively 5.5, 17.1, and 18.6 times higher while the mean content of Rb is almost 2 times lower than in normal bone tissues. In ES tissue the mean contents of Fe and Se are significantly higher (9.3 and 10.5 times, respectively) and the mean content of Rb is more than 3 times lower than in inflamed bone. In addition, many inter-correlations between TE contents found in the control group were no longer evident in the inflamed and tumor transformed bone. Thus, considerable changes in TE content and their relationships were found in OM and ES and possible causes and effects of these alterations are discussed.